Championship Classic thread.
-
This years going to be filled with alot of ugly wins like the 2 they got this week. They played bad, I mean bad! I felt like I could have played better for most of the championship classic. I dont know what to say other than I sure hope they turn things around soon because I cant watch much more of this.
I think Self needs to make some adjustments and soon. Embiid needs to start, bring Lucas in for all of Traylors minutes. White needs more minutes than he’s getting, take away about 8 minutes from Tharpe we need some 3 pt shooting. If we cant stop teams we gotta out score em and Self needs to get it in his head that these freshmen are not going to play good defence for 40 minutes.
Yeah you can bag on me for the Lucas comment but he’s putting up some pretty good stats for only averaging 4 minutes.
-
I certainly won’t bag on you about Lucas. He represented one of the few shining lights from this road trip. I’d like to see Lucas given more minutes now, too. Not so much because of his numbers in the few minutes he played… but because he’s another legitimate option and he’s never seen real court time before. From what I hear, he’s already made huge improvements since being in Lawrence. So let’s see how he reacts when he’s given real PT. Some players bounce up their games an entire notch when given real minutes. He may be that type of player. We won’t know unless he’s given some minutes.
Every team, including great teams, get stuck in ugly games. It is important that we win them. The last game mostly became ugly at the end… but at least they brought some energy to that game. I never did see the first game enough to judge. Their loss to Villanova was pathetic. I’d make them run stairs for a month if I had a team that pulled that ridiculous stunt. They embarrassed themselves and should apologize to the entire Jayhawk nation for not showing up… especially the 3000 fans that built their holiday around supporting Jayhawk basketball. I wrote an entire rant about that yesterday.
I think it goes without saying that Embiid will continue to receive favor for more minutes. Embiid and Mason were the other two shining lights that came on in the Bahamas. From the beginning, I mentioned a need to start Embiid… but after further thought, I guess I don’t really care if he starts or not, just that he gets plenty of minutes. Starting is something that can impact some player’s attitude. I don’t think Embiid cares. He didn’t grow up with basketball. But it may mean a great deal to Black. He hasn’t always performed well but we do need Black this year. He works with all the big guys in practice, too. So if Embiid doesn’t care, what is the loss in starting Black? As long as Embiid gets his minutes. He’ll never play 40 minutes.
I’m perplexed with Tharpe. At times he really shines… and other times he really dips. The largest attribute he should bring to this team is consistency. And he has a respectable trey shot, but he doesn’t use it. He feels a bit too much responsibility to facilitate other scorers. We need perimeter scoring. I don’t think Frank is our answer for that… So when we have both Frank and Naa in the game at the same time (and Selden on the bench) who can hit the trey? Better question: who WILL hit the trey?
Villanova exposed how soft we play on the perimeter. Their perimeter trap was marginal at best… but it totally worked to disrupt our half court offense. We had no answer for it. We were unable to attack it, and let’s face it… it should have been a gift for us to shred it up and throw it in Wright’s face. The fact that Wright brought that strategy should tell us all how desperate he was to try and find anything that would slow us down. He’ll never admit it, but no one was more surprised than Wright that it worked and we never adjusted to it and attacked it.
That’s what happens in November to rookie teams. They get exposed for how little they know and how little they can change during a game to react to the pressure. I don’t even care about that, because it is just a part of the game that seems to be a rite of passage.
What I do care about is hustle. And this team has enough skill and depth to bet 99% of the teams out there if they just show up ready to play!
-
Drgn, I hear what you are saying about Lucas, but whose playing time does he take? Black? Traylor?. I think he did an admirable job while he was in, but I’m not sure that he would out perform the other 2 with more minutes. What we don’t know is what goes on in practice. I could say the same thing in the ongoing debate about the playing time of White/ Greene/ Frankamp…we don’t know what goes on at practice.
-
Right on, Hawk8086…
I’d just like to see him take some minutes now from Traylor… It doesn’t have to be for the entire season… let’s just at least give him a few real minutes and see what he does. A big part of the game is self-confidence and it seems we could invest a few minutes before New Years to see what he can do.
You are right… maybe practice exposes other things. But in the least, it can also help our other bigs know their minutes aren’t guaranteed.
Maybe pull a few minutes from Ellis… he didn’t show up for most of the Bahamas trip and he’s the one guy they counted on. I’m afraid he still needs to be pushed sometimes!
-
drgn, I agree we should see more of Lucas (just because we DONT know what he is capable of yet), and my first instinct is to take some of Black’s mpg. Regarding Traylor, he has more game experience than Lucas, and has likely already out-battled Lucas in practice for live mpg…Also, he seems to have some chemistry with Ellis and even with Joel of the “2nd starting five”. Foul trouble is how Lucas will get mpg…or god forbid an injury to someone…Or in garbage time, but we have to put people away for that, and then that isnt “real” mpg–> last time Lucas got garbage minutes, he was passing up post shots/moves to feed a player named ‘Christian Garrett’ a 3 attempt…No way to judge unless we get Lucas real game minutes. I want to see what 6’10, 240lbs can do.
-
I disagree with the idea of switching personnel just because the supposed stars are not performing as expected. I think it is better to push the stars to higher heights than trying to replace them with lesser talent. If the less talented players have the experience to compensate their physical limitations like Moody, I’d take that. But at this point Landen has no experience and physically is no match to Black, Embiid, or Wiggins. Even Selden at 6’6" 220lb should be able to post up and play as a short 4 on the college level. I don’t believe we need more green wood to take up the floor. Their chance is in their Junior or Senior years. I believe Lucas belongs to the bench this year, and we need Embiid, Black to learn to play hard without fouling. And Traylor has not played with the maturity level he is supposed to have this season. After all, he has worked with Coach Self for three years already. So I guess I wouldn’t be sorry if Lucas takes Traylor’s minutes.
